Ayushi Kar
Delhi starts preparing for a complete overhaul of its electoral roll, just as is currently happening in Bihar.
On Tuesday morning, the website of the Chief Electoral Officer in Delhi uploaded the Electoral roll published for the 2008 special intensive revision. Till Monday the website was showing the electoral roll from the special summary revision of 2025.
According to the Election Commission India’s June 24 order for the countrywide special intensive revision the previous SIR for the respective state will be taken as the confirmed voter list. Those not included in the list will need to produce documents to confirm citizenship.
In Bihar, the 2003 electoral roll is being taken as the baseline, published after the SIR of 2002.
The publishing of the electoral roll from the previous SIR is the first step for the overhaul of the electoral roll in the state.
The Bihar state election website published the 2003 electoral roll days after ECI’s announcement of countrywide SIR on June 24. West Bengal, which is set to go to polls by March next year has also received oral orders, we confirmed. The election website for the state also shows the 2003 electoral roll.
With the 2008 SIR roll uploaded for Delhi, electors in the national capital will also have to show their citizenship papers too.
According to the 2025 special summary revision in Delhi, a routine annual correction and update of electoral roll, there are 1.55 crore voters in Delhi. The Collective cannot establish the number of voters from this list who will have to re-confirm their inclusion to the new electoral roll.
Voters below the age of 35, will be definitively excluded and will have to confirm their citizenship. According to ECI’s special intensive revision rules, they must provide their citizenship papers as well as those of their parents.
This SIR will also take place in Manipur soon. On July 28, the district election officer of the Imphal east district convened a meeting of all recognised national and state political parties on the matter.
We have been doggedly investigating the SIR scandal from the get go.
In Part 1 of our investigation we examined Bihar's electoral roll revision. ECI records for the state showed no sudden red flags or aberrations warranting a complete overhaul months before polls. We also tracked the chaos that ensued days into SIR.
https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/bihar-electoral-roll-investigation
In Part 2, we spoke to state officials in West Bengal. We confirmed that ECI has given oral orders to the state officials to start preparing for overhaul of electoral lists in West Bengal too
https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/next-voters-in-wb-to-face-ecis-electoral-roll-revision
In Part 3, we reviewed the ECI's counter-affidavit to the Supreme Court. The ECI has said all citizens will have to show their documents to prove their citizenship and right to vote from scratch across the country. Read our careful study of ECI's reply here
We asked the Ministry of Law and Justice for all records of legal advice given to ECI for the nationwide revision of electoral rolls. The department claims that it maintained no records.
We have been doggedly keeping tabs on ECI’s new citizenship drive from the beginning. But, stories like these require resources and we are a small team of journalists facing a financial cliff.
